


stars (falling into your gravity)

by everyperfectsummer



Series: attempts at everlark for nortberts mom [1]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Childhood Friends, F/M, buttercup plays a far larger role in this than I originally intended, fandomtrumpshate, yes editing we do not die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-14 07:05:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16487996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everyperfectsummer/pseuds/everyperfectsummer
Summary: “Hi. My favorite fandom is The Hunger Games, and my OTP is Everlark, which is Katniss and Peeta, of course. I don't really have a prompt in mind. I prefer something sweet, like modern au best friends who are in love, but think the other isn't interested. I'll leave the setting up to you.”





	stars (falling into your gravity)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Norberts_Mom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Norberts_Mom/gifts).



> Hi guys! This was written for fandom trumps hate for Norberts_Mom, and is my (long overdue) fill of their prompt! To Norberts_Mom; I hope you enjoy! To everyone else: I hope that you do as well!
> 
> Many thinks to lazy-duck for betaing this for me -- you're a lifesaver! All of the errors left are due to me or voice to text; please feel free to let me know if there are any typos in here that you think I should change! Please also feel free to let me know if there are any warnings you think I should add!

“Ohmygosh I can’t wait to meet him,” Peeta said turning towards her, actually rubbing his hands together in excitement.

 

Katniss eyed him with a mixture of fondness and amusement. “You look like a cartoon like that”, she said gesturing at his hand motions, “and it’s just a cat. An ugly one too.”

 

Peeta laughed, sticking his nose in the air and turning his voice haughty. “aAs someone who does art for a living, and is thus learned in the aesthetic arts and secrets of imagery, it is my professional artistic opinion that all cats are beautiful.”

 

“You _frost cakes_ , my dude”, Katniss said, affectionately hitting him in the shoulder. “Not exactly Met material.”

 

Peeta gasped, mock wounded, turning on the sidewalk to walk backwards for a few paces. “Are you saying that my cakes aren’t beautiful? Aren’t art? Don’t inspire you to look beyond the hum-drum of everyday life and into the things that makes life what it is? Are you questioning my very integrity as a baker?”

 

She tilted her head, mock considering. “On a visual level, no. _May_ be on a flavor level, but I can’t quite evoke the taste from my memories. I guess you’re going to have to give me some more samples of your work before I can truly judge whether or not it’s art.”

 

“Tell you what,” Peeta said, slipping past the rusty gate separating her house from the sidewalk, “I can get you the goods if you get me the _fuzz_ y goods.”

 

She followed him past the gate and into her house, idly wondering when they gone from the sort of friends where he called her mother Mrs. Everdeen Ma’am to the sort of friends where he let himself into her house and she helped him carry the bags when he went grocery shopping. “I think the fuzz is supposed to be police, not something good, if you’re aiming for a gang career,” she called ahead of her. “But yeah, the cat’s around here somewhere, just look for small and ugly.”

 

A hiss echoed from their left, and both of them turned to find Buttercup surveying them with disdain.

 

“Oh, aren’t you a precious small?” Peeta said, sing-song, going about three feet away from the cat before sinking to his knees and reaching out a hand for him to sniff.

 

Katniss smirked, waiting for the swiping and the yowls.

 

Instead, Buttercup cautiously stretched forwards, smelling the hand briefly before ducking and rubbing his head underneath it. Peeta laughed, head thrown back in delight before moving from kneeling to sitting, from one hand outstretched to both hands stroking yellow fur.

 

“He let you pet him,” she said, flat and disbelieving. “He only lets Prim pet him.”

 

“He’s gracing me with his fluffy presence,” Peeta said, reaching behind Buttercup’s ears and, from the sound of the results, flicking the switch to the loud purr machine previously hidden inside of squash colored scar tissue.

 

“I can’t believe this. Prim finds him and gets rapturous purring, I feed him and clean his litter-box and get elaborate displays of scorn, and _you,_ ” she flung an arm out towards Peeta and the world’s fluffiest Judas, “are _barely_ here for two seconds and he already loves you!” She meant it as sarcasm, and she really was mostly joking, ninety-eight percent joking, even, but somehow, two percent of her really did feel betrayed by that damn cat.   


Still scratching Buttercup’s ears, Peeta looked up and shrugged. “Maybe he can tell you hate him,” he said, still in a sing-song. “Maybe Buttercup knows what’s butter-up in this situation, doesn’t he, don’t you know all the things, don’t you?”

 

As Peeta continued to coo at the ugliest cat she’d ever seen, her best friend since kindergarten ignoring her for the sake of the cat who’d coughed a fur ball onto her pillow, she realized two things in the same moment.

 

One: she did not, in fact, hate the cat. He was noisy and a mess and an added mouth to feed, and also a small fuzzy family member she would stab someone for.

 

Two: she had a crush on Peeta that blew all of her past crushes out of the water. A crus on the boy she’d been friends with since he gave her his fruit roll ups in kindergarten, who’d given her a haircut with safety scissors not when they were five but when they were _fifteen_ , who unironically said yolo, who’d learned how to crochet just to make her a fuzzy purple cupcake. Who’d had that weird phase where he hung out with the “Careers” as the teachers called them, because they were going to go to college and Go Places In Life, joining them in mocking and menacing other kids until Glimmer decided to come after her.

 

She’d thought it was kind, then, him swinging an arm around her shoulders while they walked away together, while he walked away from his shot at being part of the popular crowd. Now, looking backing on that, looking at him coo at her cat, she’s not sure if there really were butterflies in her stomach that afternoon but they pour out of the memory, butterflies in her stomach and affection bubbling up in her heart.

 

She wanted to pull him off the floor and into a kiss; she wanted to join him on the floor petting the cat for just a moment and stretch that moment out into forever, because he was happy right then and she wanted him to be happy always, wanted to bask near him while he shone his happiness out at the world.

 

But they’re best friends, and on her part that means she talks to him at all, while on his part that means he tells her everything. He’s told her secrets and mundanities and everything in between and he’s being starry eyed over half their grade but never, ever, breathed a word about a crush on her, and as she thought about that she felt a star collapsing in her chest. Her best friend she loves but also best friend she’s in love with looks up from petting Buttercup again but this time with a wrinkle in his forehead that’s her fault. “You ok?” he asked, all traces of cooing gone from his voice, because romantic or not he loves her, and because love or not he’s always been kind.

 

And because romantic or not she loved him, she knew she should explain she’s upset, even though she doesn’t have to say why. She’sdseen enough go down at school to know that communication is good for relationships, friendships and dating alike. She also knew that she was hypocrite for being certain deep in her bones that he tells her all that matters while she returns it with bluntness and clumsy imitations of his sarcastic quips, but. If she’s a star that’s collapsing she wants to show him the brightness, doesn’t want to drag him and their friendship into the gravity of the situation. So even though she knew he’d know she was lying, she shrugged it off anyway. “Yeah,” she says, ignoring his frown of disbelief. “Just disgusted by you betraying me for Prim’s cat.”

 

“Hey,” and his tone was much more serious than she expected, “whatever it is, I’m on your side. I love you, ok? I’m always going to be on your side.”

 

Her eyes started to fill, not sad tears and not exactly happy ones either, but some sort of emotion that registered only as overwhelmed.

 

“Hey,” Peeta said again, “hey,” and she felt like a spooked horse being reassured.

 

She opened her mouth to tell him that it was ok and “I have a crush on you,” she said instead, words coming out despite what she’d meant, and instead of vaguely teary she started feeling actual tears.

 

“You what?” he froze, halfway crouched from getting back up off the floor. “Is that bad? I have a crush on you too? I don’t know if that helps or makes it worse?”

 

“That makes it helps,” she said, voice hoarse, “I mean, that makes it not worse, that helps.”

 

He pulled himself to his feet, and held his arms out, tentative. “Hug?”

 

Instead of replying, she stepped into his arms, getting tears on his shoulder. “Does this mean you’d be ok with going on a date?” she said into his sweatshirt. “Dates plural? Dating in general?”

 

“Definitely plural,” he said, with a smile she couldn’t see but could hear in his voice. “We could start a movie now, use my Netflix, call it date one?”

 

“That’s exactly what we always do, bread boy.”

 

“But this time we’ll be watching it as a _date,_ which means you have to agree to watch Titanic with me.”

 

She pulled away, heading towards the bathroom. “I’ll get a tissue, you pick out a romcom I can live with?”

 

From behind her he yelled, “What if you choose, but I get to pet the cat while we watch?”

 

“Deal!” she called back. “You’re getting stuck with Sharknado!”

 

* * *

 

She let him watch Titanic.

* * *

 

Coda:

 

Katniss does get to kiss Peeta after this, and it’s full of awkwardly hitting each other’s teeth but also full of laughing into each other’s mouths and skin. Katniss does not end up stretching a moment into eternity to bask Peeta being happy, and her being happy to be with him. She does get what feel like an eternity of happy moments.


End file.
